Just as the MCU was cementing Clint’s role as the responsible and stable member of the Avengers, with a life outside the costume in 2015, the Ultimates line was closing shop, and Matt Fraction and David Aja were redefining the character in the pages of his eponymous Marvel comic series. While Whedon’s Avengers films borrowed from Millar and Hitch’s The Ultimates, Clint’s arc took on a lighter direction, though Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo would later take a stab at depicting a vengeful Clint Barton, while still keeping Natasha as an ally, family friend and path toward redemption. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s Ultimates version of Hawkeye, who was a black-ops SHIELD agent working alongside the Avengers, became a much darker character after his wife and kids were killed by his traitorous partner, Black Widow. The decision proved to be somewhat controversial, though it still drew from the comics. Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye in The Avengers Zade Rosenthal/©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett CollectionĬlint’s role as a father and husband came as a shock when it was revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
E IN AVENGERS FONT SERIES
What’s apparent from both Clint and Kate’s stories, even before they collide at the end of episode one, is that Hawkeye is shaping up to be a series about parents and mentors and what happens when responsibilities to family conflict with past mistakes and larger ambitions. Simultaneously, Clint is in New York with his kids for the holidays, struggling to keep his promise of giving them the Christmas of their dreams when his actions as Ronin during the five years post-Blip come back to haunt him. In the present, Kate is dealing with her overbearing mother, Eleanor (Vera Farmiga), and her new fiance, Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), who both play villainous roles in the lives of Clint and Kate in the comics. Yes, there is something inherently silly about the idea of a 22-year-old woman idolizing the Avenger who gives off the biggest dad energy, but silly also bridges the gap to sentimentality as the series’ opening flashback sequence, set during the Battle of New York in 2012, depicts Kate losing her father and being saved from the Chitauri by Hawkeye within minutes. The first two episodes of the six-episode, Christmas-set, Disney+ series, introduce Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) into the MCU, and she has the designation of being a Hawkeye fangirl. In head writer Jonathan Igla’s Hawkeye, Clint Barton is not only given the chance to define himself outside of world-ending threats, but also gets to stand in the spotlight, or at least share it, as someone’s favorite Avenger.
Renner, who imbued the character with a sense of warmth and weary doggedness against ever-escalating threats, has been given a handful of memorable moments in the MCU, but rarely a chance to sink his teeth into the character in the way his other performances have suggested him capable of.
Sam Gibney Promoted to President of Home Brewĭespite the character’s long comic book history as the onetime leader of the West Coast Avengers, and a former carnie forever trying to live up to Steve Rogers, even if that meant butting heads with him, much of that history never made it to the screen.
Chalk it up to Avengers filmmaker Joss Whedon’s decision to keep him brainwashed for the majority of The Avengers (2012), a nod to his comic counterpart’s villainous origin, or the fact that a guy who shoots arrows is always going to have a more difficult time standing out amidst monsters, gods and super-soldiers, Hawkeye has never been anyone’s favorite Avenger. From his brief introduction in Thor (2011), to his recent stab at redemption as Ronin in Avengers: Endgame (2019), Clint Barton ( Jeremy Renner) has always been the most underexplored of the original Avengers. Hawkeye has always made for something of a hard target in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.